1963, South Africa. The country is on a knife edge. Political protest, sabotage and violence engulfs the country. Government forces under Hendrik Verwoerd, brutally suppress resistance. Under the state of emergency, the feared special branch of the police arrest anyone suspected of being involved in underground activities.Eleanor, an unassuming, young single mother is arrested at Griggs Bookstore where she works in Durban and taken for questioning. The police are on the hunt for her lover, the notorious “terrorist”, Red Ronnie Kasrils. She finds herself detained under the 90- day detention act and brutally interrogated. They will ‘break her or hang her”, unless she tells them where he is. On top of the physical hardship she endures, she is threatened with a long prison sentence, locked away from her 7-year-old daughter if she doesn’t co-operate.Ronnie is wanted for his involvement in a string of sabotage bombings of electricity pylons, the Durban post office and the offices of the Security Branch. There is no point in her resisting, the police “know everything”. But do they really? Eleanor is keeping a secret. She is a clandestine agent for the ANC underground. But she must protect her comrades and Ronnie. She makes the daring decision to fake a nervous breakdown in order to be transferred to a psychiatric institution. From there she begins to plot her escape.This new play tells a true story of bravery and hope in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. It is written by award winning actor and playwright, Paul du Toit and based on the Alan Paton Award winning book by Ronnie Kasrils, Eleanor’s husband, who was later to become South Africa’s minister of intelligence services in 2004.
